Some of these people help and support them against the people of faith who reject indwelling and union. Such a person is worse than one who supports Christians against Muslims, for these people’s doctrine is worse than that of the Christians. Indeed, he is worse than one who supports polytheists against Muslims.

For the doctrine of the polytheists who say, “We worship them only ‘to bring us nearer to Allah’ [al-Zumar: 3],” is better than theirs. Those polytheists affirm a Creator and created beings distinct from Him through whom they seek nearness to Him, whereas these people identify the Creator’s existence with that of creation.

Even those among them whom you find striving for the truth go no further than to say:

“The universe is neither Allah nor other than Allah.”

When the well-known ordeal involving these heretics occurred, events unfolded as they did, and Allah granted Islam victory over them, we summoned their shaykhs to call upon them to repent. One of their shaykhs came, prepared to offer us the best answer he could give in order to escape punishment. We asked him:

“Is the universe Allah, or other than Him?”

He replied:

“It is neither Allah nor other than Allah.”

He regarded this as a statement with which no one could possibly disagree. Had he known that we rejected it, he would not have said it to us. He was one of their leading shaykhs and accomplished exponents